


Aftermath

by runningondreams



Category: Marvel 616
Genre: Alcoholic Tony Stark, Angst, Gen, Past Relationship(s), Post-Civil War (Marvel), The relationship is barely there at all honestly, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, but it exists in my head
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-11-23 09:24:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18150038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/runningondreams/pseuds/runningondreams
Summary: It’s not the first time Tony’s made Steve a new uniform, but he usually does it with Steve at his side.





	Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> For the “protection” square on my stony bingo card.
> 
> * * *

Tony wakes to a new world, a world that needs Iron Man _immediately_ : Asgard is under attack.

In the calm after the battle he finds something else. Beyond the rush of adrenaline and common enemies is a world torn apart by heroes fighting heroes and a catastrophic loss of public trust. A world shaped by his hands in acts he doesn’t remember. 

He reads his mistakes in the way his old friends look at him, in their silence as they turn away. He reads them in the online newspaper archives, splashed over the front page in photos he just can’t quite disbelieve.

This is the world he built in blood and good intentions: a world where the Avengers are fractured by infighting, where an attack on his own systems left the entire planet vulnerable to invasion; a world where Wasp and Sentry and thousands of civilians are dead; a world where _Norman Osborn_ could become director of SHIELD, could run a government-sanctioned team of “heroes,” could assault Asgard itself with Tony’s own tech.

A world where Captain America—where _Steve_ —died with his hands cuffed behind his back, bleeding out on cold white steps, and it was Tony who put him there.

Supporting the SHRA was the right decision at the time. He knows that. _Knows_ it. He’d do it all again, if he had to. Everything he did, every decision he made, was the best possible decision he could make at the time. It had to have been. 

It had to. He did the right thing. 

He’d do it again. 

It’s not the same as not having regrets. The camaraderie he’d found in the fight for Asgard is gone. At least half his friendships have been shattered into hard edges and twisted reflections of what he remembers, and Steve … well.

In his dreams, Tony builds Steve a new uniform. In his dreams it can protect against magic and photon blasts and mind-control but it’s still flexible enough for Steve’s fighting style. 

In his dreams, it’s perfect.

In his waking reality Steve avoids him, and Tony experiments with new alloys and chemical bonding processes, tries to make Kevlar and carbon fiber spin thinner without rigidity, layers silk over thermoplastic composites; tries to make cloth bulletproof.

The design changes aren’t subtle. The blue is darker than Steve’s usual, more in line with SHIELD’s dress code, but he keeps a bit of red at the sides, keeps the white star bright and centered over the chest, because Steve might not be holding the shield but he’s still Captain America to most of the world and he’ll need that reputation in the days ahead. The torso is reinforced in the front and back, as sturdy as Tony can make it. The boots have hidden compartments and a tread that can find grip on greased steel. The belt has as many pockets as Tony can fit on it, and he has to stop himself before he fills them with tools and capture nets and anything else he thinks Steve might find useful. SHIELD would only want to study it all, and he doesn’t want to put Steve in that position. Doesn’t want to know where Steve will fall, between loyalty to SHIELD and a decade of friendship and battles fought side-by-side. 

It looks incomplete, even when it’s finished. Like something is missing. The shield, Tony thinks. Or the cowl. Or the scale mail Steve’s worn for so long. Or gloves that are gauntlets instead of fingerless, maybe, but Steve will need the increased dexterity, now.

It doesn’t look nearly sturdy enough. 

It looks too much like a SHIELD uniform, is what it looks like. Like the one Tony’s seen himself wearing in photographs and news vids, with added Captain-America flair. But that’s what it’s supposed to be. Something for Steve to wear in his new role. A uniform, but better than what SHIELD provides. And it _does_ stand up to every test Tony can throw at it. It’s _good._

In his dreams, Steve thanks him. In his dreams, Steve smiles, like he used to, and they share Chinese take-out over an old movie that they can pick apart between them, and Tony thinks maybe, just maybe, they might be healing. 

In reality, Tony can’t even think about stepping onto the Helicarrier without feeling sick to his stomach, and there’s no way Steve will come to him. Whatever clemency he’d been granted during fight to save Asgard is long gone now. He spends a week trying to compose a note, scrunched up scraps of paper littering the lab and his bedroom and the kitchen table. In the end he just writes, _Be safe, Steve_ , and tucks the message into one of the boots. He gets Carol to deliver the package and prays it won’t be taken as an insult. 

Steve wears it to his next press conference and Tony watches him on TV with the rest of the world, trying to figure out what he feels. It’s strange, seeing Steve do an interview with his face bared. He looks good. Really good. Strong. Self-assured. Trustworthy. The blue brings out his eyes more than Tony thought it would.

He turns off the TV and his own face stares back at him, shadowed and thin in dark glass. He wants a drink.

No.

He locks himself in the lab and works on the armor until he’s too tired to dream.


End file.
